That'd be awesome in theory but in practice they always seem to want to go 'bigger' in the sequels which means adding more mechanics and often changing the setting.
Which is fine, if they are keeping it to what works. If they don't need to reinvent the wheel every single time, then the chances of the "bigger" being good is a lot higher (though not always, as shown by Tears of the Kingdom earlier this year).
Bethesda's problem isn't losing sight of what made their games good. Its that people are finally looking at them in real time instead of years later in hindsight with a bunch of DLCs, patches and bug fixing mods in place. Like, everything I hear wrong about Starfield is how I felt about Skyrim and Fallout 3/4 (sans some of the woker elements) on release too.
Which is fine, if they are keeping it to what works. If they don't need to reinvent the wheel every single time, then the chances of the "bigger" being good is a lot higher (though not always, as shown by Tears of the Kingdom earlier this year).
Bethesda's problem isn't losing sight of what made their games good. Its that people are finally looking at them in real time instead of years later in hindsight with a bunch of DLCs, patches and bug fixing mods in place. Like, everything I hear wrong about Starfield is how I felt about Skyrim and Fallout 3/4 (sans some of the woker elements) on release too.